


Apprentice or Padawan

by AU_Writer



Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Apprentice - Freeform, Corellia, Coruscant, Duals, F/M, Fantasy, Fighting, Flying, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Jedi Temple, Life-Saving, Lothal, Padawan, Sci-Fi, Semi-family, Tension, Yuuzhan Vong - Freeform, force, force tricks, jedi vs sith, paint, prisoner
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-08
Updated: 2017-10-02
Packaged: 2018-12-25 06:06:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12029751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AU_Writer/pseuds/AU_Writer
Summary: Everything changed on the day of Order 66. Caleb became a hero, who received no glory... Ezra became an orphan, who still had parents... The galaxy became "safe", but was never more deadly... And the Jedi remained blind, to the darkness that his beneath them...Kanan is a knight of the Jedi-Order. He's broken many rules, formed many attachments, and even formed a team that he prefers to use rather than the support that he's offered by the Republic. His only problem is that no youngling peaks his interest, none are what he's searching for in a padawan... Until that day...Ezra Bridger is a wanted criminal, mostly for theft and vandalism but also because he works with a well-known and well-feared sith, Darth Maul. It's not his choice, but what other choice does he have? If he doesn't do what Maul says, then his parents will die. Until one fatefull day...





	1. A New Erra

_3258LY; Kaller, 21:00 Coruscant time; Day of Order 66…_

Caleb yawned, tired from the day's battle. He had gotten used to fighting for longer periods of time, but occasionally they had a battle that lasted longer than what he was used to. Sometimes it wasn't even that the battle was necessarily long, just tiresome since it required a massive amount of concentration and strength.

     About fifteen minutes earlier his master, Master Depa Billaba, had given him a holocron. It was something sort of like a Jedi data pad that could hopefully answer most of his questions regarding the force.

     Lost in thought Caleb didn't hear Depa urgently whisper, "Caleb." He had his eyes closed and was running his hands over the hard surface of the holocron. New questions started to pop up in his head. How did they make holocrons? How did they get the maps and recordings in them? How many were there in the possession of the Jedi Order? Where there holocrons owned or stolen from the Jedi before? Did the Jedi ever get them back? Was it possible to break a holocron? What happened when/if one broke? Did it explode? Or would it leak? What was inside the holocron?

     "Caleb." Depa repeated, slightly louder this time.

     In that instant it wasn't Depa calling to him that woke him from his trance, it was the vision he saw of Jedi in other parts of the galaxy being gunned down by the clones that they had been fighting beside for years. Caleb's eyes snapped open and he thumbed on his lightsaber since he sensed nearby danger. Depa was somewhat in front of him and Captains Grey and Stiles were advancing on them, blasters in hand.

     "Depa, what's going on?" Caleb asked nervously as he slowly stood behind his master.

     "I don't know." She replied quietly, eyeing the two clones carefully.

     "Grey? Stiles? Why are you aiming at us? What did we do?" Caleb asked innocently. His heart was pounding in his chest and he wanted nothing more than to stay hidden behind his master or to run as far away as possible.

     "What did you do? You know what you did, you traitor!" Stiles spat, "Chancellor Palpatine has given out Order 66. All Jedi are to be killed, immediately."

     Depa shook her head regretfully. "I'm afraid that we were all fooled, Stiles. Palpatine is trying to wipe out the Jedi, I know this because I have done nothing but follow orders. I have done nothing wrong, and neither has Caleb. Do you really expect a child to be guilty of a crime worth death? If you don't spare me at least spare him." Depa asked gently.

     "And be at risk of him killing us for killing you? Not a chance, Billaba." Stiles continued, Grey remained silent.

     "You can't be serious!" Caleb said aloud, now stepping in front of Depa.

     "Caleb!" Depa said in a warning tone.

     "She just said that Palpatine is using you to kill all the Jedi to get rid of the, more than likely to put himself into a large amount of power, and you're still going to shoot us? You know us better than this! You've fought with Depa for ages! Is this what you would expect from her? Do you really believe that Palpatine is accusing her of going rogue?" Caleb spat angrily. A gentle hand rested on his shoulder and he looked up into the eyes of his master. He could tell she was proud, proud that he had stood up for her, but also worried about his anger. He took a deep breath and calmed himself before continuing in a much softer tone, "Well do you?"

     Finally Grey hesitantly spoke up. "He's right Stiles. They did nothing wrong." He said in an almost inaudible tone.

     "What? You can't be serious! Siding with the traitors makes you just as bad!" Stiles hissed, aiming his blaster straight for Caleb's chest.

     Grey and Depa both lunged toward Caleb within the next heartbeat. Grey was there first, knocking Caleb to the ground. Depa was still in midair when the shot came. The shot from Stiles' blaster that hit Depa in the abdomen.

     "NO!" Caleb roared, struggling to get out from underneath Grey to check on his master. When he finally got up a few moments later he rushed to his master's side while Grey told the other clones to stand down. Caleb was struggling to contain his sobs as he applied pressure to the wound to help stop the bleeding.

* * *

     Everything else became a blur to Caleb. Time seemed to drag on for days as he stayed by Depa's side on the battlefield. At some point he must have fallen asleep because the next time he woke he was wrapped up in warm blankets laying on a soft, white bed. Next to him, in a bacta tank, was Depa. Tears sprung to his eyes once more. When he first laid eyes on Depa she had been in a bacta tank, and now she was in one once again.

     "Ah, awake at last." Said the monotonic voice of a medical droid, "It's about time too. You've been tossing and turning in that cot with a fever for nearly three days now!" The droid continued in a mumble as it worked on tasks around him, "…sleeping in the rain next to his master…no regard for personal health…such foolishness!" A ravenous growl from Caleb's stomach interrupted the droid. He turned and stared at Caleb, saying quite agitatedly, "Well you can go now. Go on! You're master's not going anywhere."

     Hesitantly Caleb left the infirmary and sought out the kitchen. He wondered to himself who had brought him and his master back to the temple. Surely not the clones! Grey maybe, but Grey getting them both here? It did seem a bit hard to believe.

     He reached the kitchen and grabbed a roll of bread and some water. As he ate he heard footsteps behind him, but upon feeling no evil intentions through the force he paid them no heed.

     "He's still out there you know." The footsteps stopped directly behind Caleb who recognized the voice instantly.

     "Grey?" Caleb asked quickly, "What happened? When did we get back to the temple? Is Depa going to be all right? What-"

     "Slow down kid!" Grey interrupted, "All you need to know is that everything is fine now, or almost fine. The Order is clearing things up right now. In the meantime, how are you feeling?"

     "I feel like I could use a shower, and something else to eat, and it wouldn't hurt to know what exactly happened…" Caleb's voice trailed off.

     "Anything else?" Grey asked giving Caleb an inquisitive look.

     Caleb thought for a moment then replied with a nod of his head, "What happened to Stiles?"

     Grey sighed and looked down, it was obvious that something bad had happened regarding Stiles. "He got away, barely, right after declaring that he would be back…back for you Caleb." Grey said grimly.

     "Back for me? Why?" Caleb pressed.

     "Because you were the one who made me think, and I was the one who made all the other clones stop and think. He would have killed both you and Billaba if you hadn't spoken up." Grey explained.

     "So now he wants to just kill me." Caleb finished for Grey.

     Grey nodded in agreement, "That pretty much sums it up."

     Grey and Caleb both sighed, deep in thought as they guessed what would happen next. Caleb assumed they would hire spies to watch the temple. Or maybe they would hire bounty hunters to scour the galaxy for Stiles! Or maybe they would assign a few young Jedi Knights to the case, giving them their first mission as a Jedi…

     "How long do you think it will take for Depa to heal?" Caleb asked breaking the silence.

     Grey shrugged, "Probably a few days to about a week and a half. The typical amount of time for a regular blaster shot."

     "Where'd it hit?" Caleb continued, not really concerned with where it hit but not wanting them to fall back into silence… Speaking of silence, where was everyone?

     "Just below her left lung, barely grazed it. Just an inch or two higher and things could have been much worse." Grey sighed and looked his wrist pad, "It's almost ten, I need to go. See ya' later," Grey paused mid-sentence and smirked, "kid."

     This time Caleb didn't object to being called kid. Instead he grinning playfully back at Grey, he'd really needed a good laugh.

     While his master healed, Caleb spent most of his days meditating in the temple. He hardly went anywhere with a master from the council or at least two Jedi Knights watching him, which had probably led to him meeting more than his fair share of Jedi.

     Despite the constant guards placed on Caleb there had been several close attempts by Stiles to kill him. And that was just in the time it took for Depa to heal, about a week in all. However, he didn't get to see her as soon as she was better as she was immediately called into a meeting with the Jedi Order.

     Later that night Caleb was in his and Depa's living area, which split off to two bedrooms. His bodyguards were only there to protect him, therefore they were too busy to train him and most of them didn't want to talk to him since he was a padawan that asked a lot of questions. So he entertained himself with books that Depa had kept such as Ancient Fighting Techniques, Corellian History, and Creatures of the Outer Rim.

     The door opened, but Caleb paid it no attention. It was probably just his current body guard bringing in something for him to eat or a book he hadn't read from library. Then a hand touched his shoulder.

     "Caleb." Caleb jumped at the voice, the voice of his master.

     "Master Billaba!" he exclaimed, rolling over to face her.

     "We need to talk." She said sincerely.

     "About what?" Caleb asked.

     "Your personal safety.” Before she could finish, Caleb interrupted her.

     “Why? I don’t need protecting! I can handle myself! And even if I fall you’re always there to give me a hand!.” Caleb protested, but he knew his reasoning was flawed. If he fell, then that was just more of a reason for whatever she was planning to happen.

     Depa let out an exasperated sigh and began to explain the situation as she saw it, “As long as Stiles is out there you're in danger. He won't stop trying to get you until he knows you're dead."

     "So what are we going to do? Am I going to go into hiding? Are we going to fake my death? Oh, what if we-" Caleb started rambling.

     "No, we aren't going to do anything drastic." Depa interrupted. “Well, not too drastic anyway.” She added with an amused chuckle. “I was thinking something more subtle. Change your name and looks. Temporarily of course! Just until we catch Stiles, or at least until his anger has worn off and we know that he won't be coming after you ever again."

     Caleb nodded silently. He always wondered what he might look like with blond hair…

     The next few days Caleb was carefully moved off-world with his master and sent to Corellia. Everything went without a hitch which meant that Stiles shouldn't know that he was off-world. Then the next phase of the plan began.

     While laying low on Corellia, Depa temporarily dyed his hair a deep, rich red, not the blond he was hoping for. She didn't bother cutting it, instead she let it grow down to the bottom of his ears saying that it made him look more like a "rowdy streetrat" instead of a "reformed Jedi Padawan".

     After about three days he was looking and acting like a whole new person, and after a few months, was a different person. Depa knew that they were dragging out the final phase to her plan longer than it needed to be, but she didn’t want her padawan to grow up being something he wasn’t…It was something she had experience with, hiding who she really was… But Caleb was ready, he had changed and unlike her he had accepted it, enjoyed it! It was time for the last phase to begin, and time for Caleb to return to the Jedi Temple…only not as Caleb…

     Depa pretended to be casually strolling the streets of Corellia while Caleb stole from a nearby cart of yogans, of course they'd already paid the owner in advance. Then while Caleb made his getaway, Depa chased after him, captured him, pretended to realize that he was force-sensitive, and then offer him a chance to learn the ways of the Jedi at the temple, and not have to "steal" to eat. Of course he said yes, but only because he had to. In all honesty, he’d kind of grown fond of the risk of living on the streets and the attachments you made to survive. It all came down to a moment that made Depa doubt their plan would work, for two major reasons. For one, she could sense Caleb’s growing fondness of the streets and because no one was required to stay at the Jedi Temple she felt the beginnings of a fear that he would not want to return with her…any other master of a padawan would have felt the same. The second reason was the fact that Caleb hadn't chosen a temporary new name yet and now that she had asked for his name and he had paused, she feared he hadn’t yet come up with a new name that he could live with for a while.

     Depa and Grey held their breaths expecting an answer that would blow the entire plan and put Caleb at risk once more, but instead they were blown away with Caleb’s performance. He easily proved to them that the short time he’d spent on the streets had made him great at hiding emotions, and making people think he was feeling one thing when he was actually feeling another. He pretended to be studying them for a moment as if he was determining whether he could trust them or not, although he was actually deciding on his name. He’d come up with a few ideas based off of some of the people he’d met on the streets, but nothing sounded right to him. He let the force guide him to his new name, his name, not a new name, just a name that represented himself and who he was inside. "Kanan," he said after an awkward moment of silence, "Kanan Jarrus." It wasn't half bad for a name he'd just come up with, then again he had help from the force... He'd based it off of his friend Janus Kasmiri, the guy who taught him how to survive on the streets, and he thought it sounded like a real name, a true name, his name.

     Depa looked at him and nodded approvingly. "It suits you." She commented, and then they left to return to Coruscant. The ride back was quiet, and kind of boring. It led Caleb to a state of semi-consciousness where he was aware of what was happening around him, but unable to interact. Somehow he realized, in his state of unconsciousness, that from that point on he would always be Kanan Jarrus. He wasn’t sure how he knew, or who told him, but he knew that Styles would never be caught. Caleb Dume had died, metaphorically, all that existed now was Kanan Jarrus…

* * *

     Have you ever wondered what it was like to be that character in a story that had to do something they didn't want to do just to protect someone they loved from harm? Well, Ezra knew exactly what that was like. It's not really a long story on how he got stuck in this position; however, it would be years before he ever learned how it actually happened.

     You see, it all started after the failure of Order 66. Most of the clones had protected their Jedi to the point where it became a temporary actual clone war. It was clones versus clones. Those who wanted the Jedi dead and those who were trying to protect them. At the beginning of this "bloodbath", as many decided to call it in later years, the Jedi mainly focused on the safety of the padawans and younglings. This was a hard time on most as several Jedi died protecting the younglings and padawans, with very few of the younglings surviving and the only padawan surviving being Kanan who was conveniently picked up during the bloodbath after Depa lost her previous padawan (no one knew about his name change except for Depa and Grey). Once the padawan and younglings were deemed safe the Jedi joined in the fighting and brought the Clone Wars to an abrupt end.

     There were many questions, of course. Who gave Order 66? Where did certain Jedi disappear to? Who was dead? Who was responsible for this or that? Despite the numerous questions, most could be answered or traced back to one person, Chancellor Palpatine. It didn't take them long to learn that Palpatine was actually the Sith Lord Siduous and that he'd lured the ever-so-famous Anakin Skywalker to the darkside.

     It was dark time, for a while. A time when no one was sure which side would win. Darth Siduous and Vader were on the run against a number of Jedi and clones-who had no idea where to look for the Sith and his apprentice. Many believed it would be another five or ten years added on to the end of the Clone Wars, but it was actually more of five to ten days before the two Sith were caught, tried, and imprisoned (Why they weren't killed instead is a mystery that very few have understood).

     Now the rest of the Jedi's affairs were pretty boring, at least for the next few years, but now is not the time for that future part of the story. For now let's turn our attention back to the young Ezra.

     Ezra's story started pretty much on the day of Order 66. Oddly enough he was born at the exact time the order was given, strange right? Well, everything was going nice and smooth for him and his family. That is until he came.

     There had been rumors that after the capture of Siduous and Vader, an old Sith had re-appeared, Maul. Most believed that he had died and that it wasn't likely for him to wait till Sidious and Vader's capture to strike again, but they were wrong. It just didn't make sense considering killing them would be a much faster way to get rid of them and take their place as the most feared Sith in the galaxy.

     As it turned out, Maul was alive. One that was said to be looking for a potential apprentice. The rumors said that he was staying in the Outer Rim, where the Republics control was limited in most areas and therefore they would not disrupt his search trying to catch and put him on trial as well. This caused the parents of the young Ezra Bridger to worry as they knew from the beginning that he was different, that he was special. So the young parents Ephraim and Mira took their son and prepared to leave for a planet closer to the Republic. Corellia, perhaps, Ryloth maybe, Kaller was a descent possibly, as was Garel, or Coruscant, but for some reason they just couldn't picture staying on that overcrowded planet.

     Unfortunately, fate (the force or some other power over one's destiny) had a different idea in mind for the Bridgers. The day that they had planned to leave was the day that Maul came to Lothal. It seemed that Ezra was a beacon for him, which was how he found them so fast and was able to stop them from leaving the planet. The struggle between the parents and Maul didn't last long either, he wanted Ezra as his apprentice badly enough to kill both parents; however, he refrained from doing so as killing them would mean losing possible leverage against Ezra later.

     No one seemed to notice the Bridger's disappearance, not even when Maul started making his name known throughout the galaxy by striking the New Republic wherever and whenever he could make it hurt the worst. It wouldn't be until Ezra was thirteen, when Maul would start sending him on missions, that they would know that some kid known as "Ezra Bridger" was working as Maul's apprentice. Then it took them nearly two years to find out that the family he belonged to came from Lothal.

     Now it has been fifteen years since the end of the Clone Wars. Kanan Jarrus (a.k.a. Caleb Dume), at age twenty-nine, is the only Jedi Knight with a "team" as most have been clinging to the old ways which makes him considered (by most) to be unusual or weird (not that he cares). His team is comprised of Hera Syndulla (twi'lek age twenty-five), and Hera's annoying droid Chopper (formally known as C1-10PR). Then there is Ezra, fourteen but almost fifteen, under Maul's control and not quite ready to join a Jedi but ready to get away from Maul. This is where the story of a Jedi Master, a Jedi Knight, a Sith Lord, and a boy begins…the beginning of the epic journey of war, strife, friendship, and betrayal…


	2. The Apprentice and The Sith

     “Enemy ship closing in at o’ two hundred. Be ready Asohka, he she be in your sights in two minutes.” Kanan reported over his comm link. Asohka, Master Kenobi, and he were chasing down a kyber crystal thief, and a regular one at that. Asohka had managed to learn that he had stolen from several Jedi kyber crystal mines.

     “Copy that, Cowboy, I’ll keep my eyes open.” Asohka replied from her comm. It was typical for her to give the people she was working with a nickname. She had nicknamed her former master Sky Guy due to his love of flying, and she nicknamed Kanan “Cowboy” because of his fighting style and personality. Asohka apparently considered Kanan to be a different kind of Jedi, nothing like the others at the Jedi Temple.

     “I shot his right shield generator!” Kanan exclaimed suddenly over the comms. “His ships leaning pretty badly, he’ll probably have to put it down. He’s all yours Asohka!” Kanan pulled back as Asohka took his place in the sky in her own X-wing. She’d force the thief down to Kenobi where they could apprehend him, at least that was what the plan was.

     Kanan watched Asohka as she stayed right on the thief’s tail, carefully getting closer to him so that she could use her ship to literally push him down. The three ships went down and landed almost at the exact same time. Asohka and Kanan each scrambled out of their X-wing’s to join Obi-Wan on the ground, the thief still hadn’t come out of his ship yet.

     “Be wary, he may try one last, desperate attempt to escape.” Obi-Wan warned as the three approached the ship, all three with lightsabers drawn.

     The door opened and a lot of smoke billowed out. The three Jedi stood ready for any attack. A shadow flew overhead, the three Jedi’s eyes followed it.

     “Well, I admire your enthusiasm to meet me, but I’m afraid it’ll have to wait.” The shadow said calmly, sounding slightly teasing. If Kanan wasn’t mistaken, it was the voice of a kid.

     Obi-Wan used the force to sweep away the smoke, revealing a kid standing about fifteen feet away from them with his arms crossed. Kanan was right, it was the voice of a kid. It was hard to tell in the lighting, but he appeared to have black hair and some deep shade of blue for his eyes. His skin was slightly tan, more like a genetic tone to his skin as if he was born with it than from spending time out in the sun.

     “Why, you’re just a boy!” Obi-Wan said, putting away his lightsaber. Kanan and Asohka followed suit.

     “I’m thirteen! Technically I’m a teenager!” The boy protested.

     “Why are you stealing kyber crystals? What would your parents think? Surely they don’t just let you roam the galaxy and allow you to steal stuff.” Asohka asked, taking a step forward so that she was standing next to Obi-Wan.

     “My parents can’t do anything for me thanks to you Jedi!” The kid hissed. “And as for why I’m stealing the crystals, heh, I’m surprised that you haven’t figured it out yet! I guess you’ll just have to figure it out later, I’ve gotta run. Duty calls, ya’ know.”

     The teen turned to walk away, but Obi-Wan spoke up, “You’re ship is damaged, boy, and in the other direction. You won’t be getting anywhere by traveling in that direction.”

     “I’m not leaving with my ship, or by foot.” The kid replied nonchalantly, using the force to move R2-D2 from Asohka X-wing. “I’m taking your ship.” Before any of the three Jedi could react, the kid jumped into Asohka’s ship and started the engines. As he began to ascend, Kanan, Asohka, and Kenobi used the force to hold the ship down. They were succeeding in keeping him from leaving too, until a mysterious force hit them full blast. All three were knocked back to the ground, when they regained their footing they were scrambling to grab the ship with the force again. Then they sensed danger and instead of holding on to the ship they each dove for cover, right as the thief’s ship exploded.

     “Well, that was…interesting.” Kanan pondered aloud when they had all gotten back to their feet. The entire ship was gone, destroyed by the explosion. The thief was good, now they wouldn’t be able to use his flight log to learn where he had been in the past and where he would most likely be now.

     “Was he the one who pushed us with the force? If he used the force, and if he’s been stealing kyber crystals…is it possible that he could be a Sith apprentice?” Asohka asked, turning to Obi-Wan.

     “Perhaps, though since we couldn’t actually see who pushed us we can’t necessarily say it was him. An anomaly of the force, an unseen partner of his… We may not know for sure what his position in the force is, I believe we should watch his movements very closely. If he is a Sith apprentice, then we need to be ready to face another Sith.” Kenobi said seriously.

     “I agree.” Kanan nodded. “If he is a Sith apprentice, we will want to stop him before we have a repeat of the Clone Wars and Order 66.” Kanan looked away and breathed heavily, the memories of that dark time were washing over him. Asohka placed a reassuring hand on Kanan’s shoulder, bringing him back to reality.

     “It’ll help if we can get a name for him, then we can find out where he’s from which may in turn reveal his motives. I’ll ask in some favors, see if I can learn anything about him. It shouldn’t take me long to learn even something little about him.” Asohka added.

     “Shouldn’t take long? What exactly do you do away from the Jedi temple, Asohka?” Kanan chuckled lightly, easing the seriousness just a little.

     “Well, I’m not a Jedi anymore, nor do I look like a Jedi, so I tend to get a lot more information from people less likely to trust a Jedi.” Asohka grinned. “Apparently, not being a Jedi and carrying a lightsaber means you’re either a Sith or a Dark Jedi in their viewpoint, meaning they won’t want to tick you off of try any of their cons on you. I’ll just need to get a ship first and then I’ll start calling in some of those favors I’m owed, they should get me some information pretty fast…if not then I’ll start my usual rounds when I’m looking for certain information.”

     “You can take Obi-Wan’s ship.” Kanan offered with a snicker. “Kenobi can ride back to the temple with me.”

     “Thank you, Kanan, for offering me Obi-Wan’s ship. May the force be with you.” Asohka waved as she boarded his ship with R2-D2.

     “Always.” Kanan added in a whisper, the words meaning more to him than what most made of them.

     “We should go, the council will be waiting to hear how the mission went. I didn’t know I was such a generous person either.” Kenobi said as they made their way to the Corellian cargo ship that had brought Kanan here.

     “They won’t be pleased to hear that a kid slipped through our fingers, or that you let your ship go so easily.” Kanan replied. As soon as they boarded the ship, the pilot took off.

     “Must be some kid.” The pilot, Kanan’s friend Hera, pointed out. Kanan frowned at this and turned away, but at the same time he knew that Hera was right. That really was some kid. He’d felt something about him, and he wondered if Kenobi or Asohka had felt it too. “And what exactly happened to Master Kenobi’s ship?”

     “Kanan decided to let Asohka take it out for a spin.” Kenobi replied with an amused grin.

     “Oh boy.” Hera replied, shaking her head. “At least it’s not Luke, he’s got great potential but he’s a bit rough around the edges when it comes to steering. He seems to have a thing for dangerous flying techniques.” Hera continued, thinking of Kenobi’s padawan who she had been giving flying lessons for the past couple months.

     “You haven’t noticed any signs of a quick-temper have you?” Obi-Wan asked. “He just seems so much like his-like my last padawan.” He corrected himself, though there was really no need to. Everyone in the galaxy knew about the fall of Anakin and how he became Darth Vader.

     “No, he’s a good kid. He doesn’t want to fly closer to the city until he’s gotten better, he’s afraid he’ll accidentally run over another ship.” Hera chuckled warmly. “I don’t think you have anything to worry about with him. He looks up to you, wants to impress you, and he’s not too interested in politics.”

     Obi-Wan nodded in satisfaction. The trio fell silent as Hera piloted them into space and calculated the jump to hyperspace. There was nothing more that needed to be said between them, so Kenobi went to report their findings to the Council while Kanan helped Hera figure out where they would be landing when they got to Coruscant.

* * *

      Ezra flew the stolen ship into the hangar of a small space station. The second he landed a team of droids that maintained the station swarmed onto the ship to clean it. That was bad. Whenever droids cleaned the ship for him it meant that his master either had something to talk to him about, or they were about to train. Both scenarios were less-than-desirable for Ezra as both usually left him with a few bruises and a cut or two. Talking usually meant he was in trouble…training usually meant that his master was in a bad mood…

     He made his way to his master’s chamber where he found his master meditating in darkness, hatred and anger radiating off of him like heat off of a burning sun. Ezra sat across from him and began to meditate as well, the hate from Ezra was nowhere near as strong as his master’s. Ezra didn’t have much to hate or be angry about. The only thing he hated was the force itself. The only person he was angry with was his master. He didn’t want to be “special”, he didn’t want to be a Sith, all he wanted was to live a normal teenage life with his family on Lothal!

     “Yes, focus on your anger, your hate.” Ezra heard his master say in his ear. Ezra snorted in annoyance but remained focus on the anger, letting it consume him in the force, not that he wanted it. “It is somewhat disappointing that your anger only goes so far, although as you grow I suppose it will become stronger, more prominent…or maybe you need better incentives…” The Sith muttered the last part under his breath, but Ezra still heard it. He knew what that meant, and he didn’t like what his master was implying.

     “Don’t you dare think about hurting my parents!” Ezra hissed, still meditating. His anger was causing the air around him to swirl, creating powerful air currents that blew souvenirs of his master’s past off the shelves they were on, even breaking some.

     “That’s better, my apprentice, much better. You can only protect your parents through your aggression. Let your fear become your anger, and your anger become hate, and your hate become your weapon. Draw power from the hate that causes the dark side to swell and use its power to destroy anything that gets in your way!” His master spat. “Let it control you! Let it power you! Let it fill you with enough rage to destroy an entire planet!”

     With an outraged roar, Ezra leaped up from his position on the floor, lightsaber ignited and ready to swing. Instead of swinging his blade though, he resorted in using Sith lightning to distract his master. Usually, it was his master that started their sparring matches, but this time Ezra was hoping to catch him off guard. If in just one battle he could manage to deliver a fatal blow to the Sith, then he and his parents could be free again… The feeling of the hate…his hate of his master…the hate of having to look at his master’s hideous red and black skin, the hate of those cruel yellow eyes…the hate of the force for giving him this fate! He swung his blade as if he was crazed and threw force lightning whenever he could. Master and apprentice dancing together in a deadly game, a game where in any usual situation one would be killed.

     Ezra felt himself sinking deeper into the darkness, like he was being sucked under water where he would surely drown and die…being sucked into something that would take the life out of him, and make him a monster… He might have been raised to be violent, to enjoy hate, and love anger, but even through all the darkness of his life he could see that this was not the way. The hairs on his neck were pricked, like he knew that this dark pool would destroy him. There was still time to get away from it though…but could he still save his parents if he let go of the darkness? Without the force he was weak, without the force there was no possible way for him to beat his master! He could feel himself losing control, the darkness was gaining command over his body, his actions weren’t his own. His master was encouraging this, enjoying this. Ezra pushed the Sith away from him with a massive wave of force energy. He panted heavily and glanced at a fragment of glass laying in the middle of the floor. His eyes…there was still some blue, but they were turning yellow. They were becoming the eyes of the man he hated most! That was the last warning bell, the alarms in his head were ringing enough to give any normal person a massive headache. Ezra’s heart skipped a beat, he was scared, he didn’t want this! He immediately let go of the darkness and was consumed with a feeling much like taking a breath of air after nearly being strangled to death. He straightened his composure and glared at his master, the yellow faded from his eyes.

     “And as always, you never cease to disappoint me.” His master growled. “Embracing the darkness is the only way!”

     “Maybe.” Ezra quipped, “But I don’t want to be a force-wielder, an assassin would cool though…or a bounty hunter.”

     His master took a step back to observe Ezra for a moment, probably to consider whether or not he should strike his unwilling apprentice down or still try to convert him to the dark side. It was this moment that Ezra took to lunge at his master, to strike what should have been the fatal blow…he failed! When he landed, he looked up into his master’s eyes. He had missed his master’s head…and now he was probably going to get beaten half to death. Instead, his master just grinned evilly over him and suddenly Ezra knew why. A strangely hot sensation consumed his side. He fell to the floor, clutching at his side. It burned, it stung. He’d been foolish to believe that he could ever defeat his master.

     “The weak never survive.” His master scolded him. “The strong survive by doing whatever it takes to live, and that means using the dark side. It is quite a shame though. Now that you’ll be dead, I’ll hardly have a use for your parents, and we all know I can’t just let them go. Oh, no. It would be terribly bad if they told the galaxy that I was still alive…hmm, well, I suppose I’ll just have to let them out the airlock. They shouldn’t cause any problems that way.” His master approached him slowly, then knelt down next to Ezra to whisper into his ear, “You’re a failure! Always have been, always will be. Even after you die you will be remembered as a failure!”

     Just then Ezra sprang to his feet. There wasn’t enough time to reignite his lightsaber, so he resorted in swinging it and hitting his master with part of the handle…in the face. Both took a few steps back, Ezra because he wanted to stay out of striking distance and his master because of the shock of his apprentice getting up even though he was wounded. Only Ezra wasn’t wounded. As his master eyes him, he noticed that the left side of the boy’s tunic was burned away. There was a slight burn on his apprentice’s side, but no stab wound. He had missed too! How?!

     “Still think I’m a failure?” Ezra smirked proudly.

     “Very…impressive…my apprentice.” Maul complemented slowly, as if he was either still grasping the fact that his apprentice had made his nose bleed with the hilt of his lightsaber or the fact that his apprentice had truly impressed him. “Dismissed.” He added at a normal pace for speech.

     “Yes, master.” Ezra bowed and hurriedly left the room before his master had the chance to change his mind.

     Ezra decided to go to the docking bay where the ship he stole was. He found it strange that his master was impressed with his abilities, mostly because he never was. Nothing ever impressed his master…everything always made him angry. His master didn’t even ask him about his mission…that was incredibly strange to him. Every time he stole kyber crystals, his master wanted to know how many he got, how big they were, and if it was possible that there were any more in that mine. He entered the stolen ship and made his way to the controls. The bag with the stolen crystals had been untouched by the maintenance droids. Ezra’s heart began to race as a plan started to form in his mind. He quickly forced himself to calm down though, he couldn’t risk letting his master sense what he was about to do. With careful hands, Ezra opened the bag and looked at the crystals. It would be so easy to grab a handful of them and hide them from his master…to save them for something, like escaping this place. He slowly reached a hand down into the bag and touched one of the crystals. His eyes widened when his finger grazed it and he quickly pulled it out. Eyes wide, he couldn’t take them off of the crystal. The crystal was strangely warm, not like it would burn him, it was more of a soothing warmth…and it was glowing. It glowed a hue of blue that made him think of his eyes if they were glowing too. Ezra found himself lost in the beauty of the crystal, mesmerized by it so that he was completely unaware of anything happening around him, which would have been interesting because he would have noticed that he was making everything in the ship levitate. It wasn’t until a wrench clanked against the viewport of the ship that he snapped out of his entranced state, causing everything to fall to the floor.

     Ezra knew he should have terrified of standing there with the crystal for so long, but instead he felt…content. He quickly placed that specific in his boot, a place he learned to hide stuff that he didn’t want his master to find. Then he grabbed the bag and went to take it to his master. If he had impressed his master today, then he would surprise him and impress him again by taking initiative and bringing the crystals to him before he asked for them…except for the one in his boot.

     When the doors out of the docking bay opened, Ezra found himself standing face to face with his master. He couldn’t hide the shock of running into his master here from his master, a bad thing to have happen to him now. He quickly calmed himself to make it seem as if he just wasn’t expecting someone to be there when he opened the door.

     “Ezra? What are you doing here?” His master asked, his voice accusing as if he knew that Ezra had kept one of the crystals.

     “I was getting the crystals I stole to bring back to you.” Ezra explained, keeping his body relaxed and his voice nonchalant. “Are you headed somewhere?”

     “Yes.” His master answered, taking the bag from him and studying him. Ezra just knew that he had to be looking for any reason to interrogate him, looking for a reason to ask him why he was keeping one of the crystals to himself. His master didn’t ask about the crystal though, instead he simply nodded. “Now that you are making progress and impressing me, it is time for the next phase of my plan to begin. I must speak with our allies. The first attack will come soon.”

     “ _Our_ allies?” Ezra questioned. He wasn’t aware that there were people stupid enough to follow his delusional master!

     “You will meet them in time.” His master replied, not telling him anything else. “I won’t be long, I’ll be back within two to three hours.”

     Ezra didn’t ask anything else. He just stood there, watching his master leave. Two hours at the least, three hours at the most…it was a rather decent amount of time... As soon as his master made the jump to hyperspace, Ezra whirled around and practically bolted for the lower levels of the space station. He was heading to a place he rarely visited on the station, because he wasn’t supposed to go there without permission, but it was a place he loved to go because it made him feel like he was nothing more than a child. Not a forced Sith-in-training, not a prisoner, not responsible for anything…just a kid…just a kid.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed this chapter! I loved writing the part where Ezra started to use the dark side. I used The Force Unleashed and Kanan The Last Padawan as references for that part. The next chapter is going to be kind bittersweet, probably not too exciting.
> 
> Question:  
> Should I write more stuff with a shirtless Ezra?
> 
> A lot of people seem to have attacked A Handsome Young Jedi In Training, so now I'm considering doing some more like those...maybe do one with Kanan...


	3. The One That Shines Above The Rest

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "I shall be telling this with a sigh  
> Somewhere ages and ages hence:  
> Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—  
> I took the one less traveled by,  
> And that has made all the difference."
> 
> The Road Not Taken  
> By Robert Frost

     Ezra was practically running down to the lower level cells, hardly ever used for prisoners with the exception of two specific people. He burst through the door to the lower level and slid to a halt in front of the very last cell, the one that held the only prisoners down here… “Mom! Dad!” His parents…

     “Ezra?” His mother’s voice called to him, she wasn’t expecting him but she wouldn’t turn down this surprise visit. He could sense that she wanted to reach through the barrier separating them and wrap him in her arms, but the only thing that would accomplish now would be her getting shocked and probably killed.

     “Son,” His father nodded to him, “I thought Maul didn’t like you coming down here.” His father’s voice was stern, and when Ezra used the force to push deeper into his father’s emotions he felt concern. His father was happy he was there, but worried that coming down here was going to get him in trouble…or hurt.

     “He’ll be gone for a few hours.” Ezra replied, settling down onto his knees in front of their cell, indicating that he wanted to talk.

     “You’re getting so big!” His mother exclaimed after studying him for a few moments. “And you look so much like your father!”

     “Yeah, I’ve been training a lot sooo,” Ezra sighed and then released an amused chuckle, “I hit Maul in the face with the wrong end of my lightsaber today.”

     “Was he angry?” His father asked, clearly amused by the idea of his son hitting the man he wanted to strangle.

     “No, he stared at me a moment and then basically told me good job…he even forgot about the kyber crystals he told me to steal earlier! He…I…” Ezra sighed again and looked away, “I almost gave in to the dark side when we were training today…” Both parents were silent, Ephraim opened his mouth to say something but Ezra was already talking again. “It was so easy…like slipping underwater. It wasn’t hard at all! It felt like I was just letting myself slip under the surface of a dark pool, the water was cold… I was almost completely submerged when I… I saw my reflection in shattered piece of glass and instead of me, I saw Maul… I immediately let go of the force… I lunged at him, missed his neck by like two inches and then he missed my side by barely half an inch.” Ezra’s face brightened at the memory. “I pretended that he did hit me though, I pretended to be dying and then when he got close I popped up and hit him in the face with my lightsaber. He was so shocked he couldn’t even hide it! And then he started bleeding! I’m not sure I’d count it as a win or not, but it sure feels like a win.” Ezra beamed proudly.

     “Just be careful.” His mother warned. “Maul isn’t known for playing nice.”

     “Your mother has a point. Your next sparring lesson will probably be much harder than what your used to.” Ephraim agreed.

     Ezra huffed in annoyance. “I can handle myself! I faced off with Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, some Jedi Knight, and Asohka Tano when I stole those kyber crystals. Blew up my own ship as a distraction and took one of their ships without getting caught or losing the crystals! And…” He checked the time, Maul had been gone for about fifteen minutes…he probably hadn’t forgotten anything if he hadn’t come back…and there were no security cameras down here… “Maul didn’t sense that I took this.” Ezra pulled the kyber crystal from earlier out of his pocket. Looking at it now, it appeared to be rather small, perhaps the smallest out of the bag and the smallest he had ever seen.

     “So basically,” His father said slowly, seeming to struggle to get the words out, “you stole this, from Maul?”

     “Yes.” Ezra answered boldly, and maybe even a bit possessively.

     “And Maul doesn’t know?” His mother asked, her voice sounded strained. She didn’t think he would be okay if Maul found out.

     Rather than answer her question, Ezra responded to her emotions. “The Sith always betray each other in the end, mom. If anything, I bet he’ll be glad that I’m finally taking ‘initiative’ over taking his place… although I’ll need to take it slow. He mentioned something about some allies he has…he’s planning for war. He-”

     “War!” Both of his parents exclaimed.

     “No!” Mira gasped. “Maul can’t throw you into a war! I swear! If that man starts the Clone Wars up again he’ll be sorry he even considered you as his apprentice!”

     Ezra smiled and stifled a laugh. He loved how protective his mother could be. From what he knew of his parents, his mother had spoken out against the Clone wars, the Sith, and have even thrown some accusations at the Jedi and Republic, but her accusations were reasonable and there was no record of the Jedi ignoring her… although no one in the galaxy probably remembered her much considering the fact that no one had missed her or his father when Maul took them away.

     “Do you know anything of his plans?” His father pressed. It was easy to sense that his father was more strategical and straightforward than his mother. His father was more of a think first, emotions later while his mother was more of emotional impulses first, think about what you’re doing later.

     “Not yet.” Ezra answered. “He said I would meet his allies soon though…although I have a feeling he’ll send me on another thievery mission first. You know, I’m still trying to figure out what he’s doing with all of the stuff I steal for him. None of it stays here you know, he always takes it with him somewhere and when he comes back it’s gone…” Ezra’s voice trailed off as he fondled the crystal in his hands. His mind traveled back to when he’d picked it up, the warm feeling…the light…

     “Ezra?...” Mira whispered. Ezra shook his head realizing that he’d been drifting.

     “Do you know what it means when one of these glow and radiate heat?” He asked, ignoring her concern for him.

     “N-no, why do you ask?” His father stuttered. Ezra would have thought that after everything that had happened to them, they would have been used to unusual things happening. Apparently not…

     “Because that’s why I took it.” Ezra explained. “After the ‘training’ session, I went to get the bag of crystals to give to Maul. I looked in the bag, it glowed, I touched it, it felt warm, so I kept it. I don’t know why, but the warmth of, the light from it…they made feel, content…” As he trailed off his vision trailed down to the crystal in his hand. Did it just flicker a little light?

     “You might consider using it then.” His mother suggested. “It might lead from content to happiness, maybe even freedom.”

     “I don’t want to be free if it means you two stay stuck in here.” Ezra snapped, he could feel his temper rising. “And unlike you, I realize that it is something that will never happen! Maul has made sure of that. Even if I manage to kill him, there’s no guarantee that I’ll be able to override the fail safes that he’s put in place!”

     “Ezra!” Mira exclaimed in horror. She seemed to catch Ephraim off guard as he took a small step back in fear. “As long as I am alive, you will not even think about killing anyone! Sith or not!”

     “What if-” Ezra started, but Mira held her hand up to interrupt him.

     “You’ll know if it’s okay to kill someone when the second comes down to either killing them or letting them go. In that second, you’ll either see a way to take them prisoner and spare their life, or you’ll understand that they must be killed because they cannot be captured, but you will never kill out of hatred for one another. I may not be a Jedi, but even I would look down upon killing out of hate. Do I make myself clear?”

     For once Ezra felt like his mother had power over him, which was strange since she was locked in the cell and unable to get to him…maybe her ghost would haunt him or something? “Yes, ma’am.” He replied, bowing his head like a child that had just been caught stealing an extra cookie from the cookie jar.

     Down the hall, Ezra heard the door open. He tensed for a brief moment until he realized it was merely the droid that brought food down for his parents, an idea came to mind. “You said I might be able to use this for something right?” He asked quickly and in a low tone, holding up the crystal.

     “Yes…?” His mother answered cautiously, not sure why he was suddenly so jumpy.

     “You’re good with tech, right dad? Your file said you were a mechanic before you disappeared.” Ezra didn’t have much time, the droid would see him as soon as it rounded the corner.

     “Yeah, I worked on repairing ships, and in my spare time I played around with pieces of junk.” Ephraim replied, equally confused as his wife. Neither knew where Ezra was headed with this.

     “When the droid comes around the corner, I’m going to use the force to hide on the ceiling. When it opens the sliver of the door that allows him to give you the food, I’m going to throw the crystal in. It can be used as a power source, and you’ve got some junk in there to keep you from getting bored down here. Meanwhile, I’ll try to figure a way to get us all out after you get out of the cell. I’ll be back down whenever I can get here without being missed or noticed…” Ezra jumped up to the ceiling and used the force to keep the droids head at a position where it wouldn’t see him, to anyone else, it would look as if the droid had temporarily malfunctioned. The sliver of the door opened and the crystal flew in without being noticed, he guessed it was a good thing it was so small. His mother grabbed it and tucked it into her pocket. He nodded and moved to leave, forming two words on his mouth. Despite the lack of sound, he could almost hear them whisper back, “We love you.”

     Ezra returned to his room, starting to get frustrated that he couldn’t get the echo of their words out of his head. “We love you” they had whispered, he had heard it so clearly as if they had yelled the words through a microphone. He shook his head to clear it, but that didn’t help much. He needed something to occupy his mind, but as he looked around the room all he saw was stuff that he’d already done. Several history books about the galaxy, planets, Jedi, and different humanoid races plus a few disk files that he’d put together of the most important facts of those histories…then there was the books full of languages with disks holding information about the more modern way those languages were being spoken…and, of course, the old training system Maul stole to teach Ezra the seven forms of lightsaber combat—all were souvenirs of the way he was brought up, and reminders of why he should escape.

     Ever since Ezra could remember, Maul had been teaching him something and by teaching that usually meant putting a droid in charge of whatever he was learning or threatening to harm one of his parents if he didn’t learn something fast enough. Ezra could never remember at which specific age the history and language lessons had started, and although his parents had told him that he was around the age of three when his lessons started, it did little to ease the curiosity of those distant times. He remembered the transition to lightsaber training though; he was about ten when it started. Maul had him watch countless hours of recordings of Jedi and Sith fighting each other to the death, in a few short, sleepless weeks Ezra had finally learned how to ignore the bloodshed and death to the point that it hardly phased him anymore. That didn’t mean he liked it though, he hated it but he had to learn to deal with it. Then he had practiced the seven forms, mastered them, and after a year of sparring with Maul he was now going on raids to steal kyber crystals.

     Ezra sighed and moved toward one of the bookshelves, intending to look over one of his favorite language books about translating ancient languages whose writings were no longer taught or known. He reached out for the book, and then his body became as stiff as the reinforcements of a destroyer… He felt like a bolt of energy had shot up the sole of the foot he had used to step close enough to grab the book and traveled straight to his eyes. All he could see was blue/white lightning which was odd. There was no pain, despite the shock, just warmth. Remembering what had happened with the crystal earlier, he gave in to the mysterious force and fell to the floor.

* * *

 

     _Ezra opened his eyes to find himself in space. He jumped to his feet but found that he was in no danger, he could breathe here. So, not space?_

_“Hello?” He called out, his voice echoing about the space. He hadn’t expected a reply and he had no idea why he thought asking hello would change that._

_Small, padding footsteps running up from behind alerted Ezra to something coming. He whirled around to see a small black loth-cat with blue eyes. It stopped a few feet away, but those eyes…It’s eyes looked at him as he might look at a yogan after not eating for weeks. Behind the loth-cat, a black loth-wolf with the same color eyes appeared. The wolf had it’s eyes on the cat, the cat had his eyes on him… His heart skipped a beat. Loth-wolf… Loth-cat… and he was the Loth-rat…_

_“Loth-rat, loth-cat, loth-wolf, run!” Ezra whispered, taking a step back in fear. He didn’t bother finishing the riddle, there didn’t seem to be any point in it. Instead, he spun around on his heel and he ran._

_The stars formed a path for him, a path he followed gratefully and without any hesitation. He was gaining distance between himself and the loth-wolf, and he was beginning to think that it wasn’t going to catch him! Until the path split… He slid to a stop, not knowing which path to take. They all looked the same, but each felt different. How was he to know which one was safe?_

_The first path was narrow and dark. It looked like the stars that it was comprised of were too old to be of any use, like they would vanish beneath him if he put his weight on them. The second path, the path in the middle, was dull but not as dark. It’s path wasn’t as narrow, but it wasn’t very wide either. It’s stars looked sturdy but they also looked…tired, like they might hold him up but like they also might decide that they had enough of supporting and were ready to just give up and leave. The third path’s stars shone with a reddish tint to them. They were bold, they looked secure, the path was wide and seemed to promise the most safety. Then he remembered the rest of the old Lothal riddle…_

_“Pick a path and all is done…” Whichever path he chose would determine his fate…_

_The hairs on the back of Ezra’s neck stood on end, an attack was coming! He ducked down and the loth-cat sailed over his head, onto the center path. The cat slide around, it was unable to stop itself as the path was like a slippery slope. Ezra reached out to help the poor creature, feeling sorry for it. It scrambled to try to reach him, but stopped to let out a warning hiss. Ezra sensed danger to his right and rolled to his left, the loth-wolf landed from the pounce meant for Ezra onto the third path. The path immediately gave way beneath it, and it fell howling in fear. Despite the fact that the creature had tried to kill him, just like with the loth-cat, he used the force to catch it. As he was lifting it back up, the loth-cat started to slide over the edge. While still pulling the loth-wolf back up, he lunged for the cat, grabbed it by the tail, and pulled it back to safety with him and the loth-wolf._

_“Alright, look. We could try to kill each other, or we could work together to survive.” Ezra explained, he didn’t know why he thought the creatures could understand what he was saying. “Okay?” The loth-wolf growled in frustration, but nodded it’s head in a silent agreement. The loth-cat hissed and jumped onto the loth-wolf’s back. It seemed that they were all in agreement…for now._

_Ezra looked at the first path…the loth-cat and loth-wolf had already tried the other two paths, it only seemed fair that he tried one too. The second he stepped on the path, it exploded with light. The light blinded him and he fell off of the narrow path into darkness._

_When Ezra opened his eyes, he was watching his parents…and they were free! They looked scared, uncertain… What was happening? If they were free then that meant Maul was gone._

_“Mom, get us some water rations! Dad, get us something to eat! I’ll prepare the ship. We need to be gone in no more than twenty minutes!” He heard himself say to them, but he hadn’t opened his mouth! Why? How? They didn’t seem to be freaked out by it at all! He felt his body turn and open the door behind him, immersing him back into darkness._

_This time Ezra saw his parents talking to Obi-Wan Kenobi, Depa Billaba, Asohka Tano, and Yoda… But why? They seemed to be trying to convince them of something...but what? And why?_

_“…made it clear that he doesn’t care about the charges being pressed against him.” He managed to hear Obi-Wan say in confusion._

_“He never said a word in his defense, or anything for that matter.” Asohka added._

_“Please!” His mother begged. “Asohka, you were once wrongly accused. Please give him a chance! You’ll see, he’s not what you believe him to be!”_

_“I believe you.” Billaba interrupted before Asohka could say anything. I felt something when he was brought here, I’ll see what I can do.” She nodded at his parents before walking away, Obi-Wan and Asohka watching her leave in shock._

_“In him, something special she sees.” Yoda commented. “See it, we do not.” He added sounding somewhat uncertain. Yoda turned to his parents and added with a chuckle, “Miss things, the Jedi have. See things, we have not. A good man he may yet be.”_

_Who were they talking about? Why were his parents concerned about this man? Why wasn’t he with them? He wanted to scream these questions, but found he could say nothing. All he could do was watch as his vision went dark once more…_

_As his vision faded, he saw strange beings, he saw his parents running down the halls of the lower levels of space station, he saw himself accepting something from a dark-skinned kid on a space station, he saw a Jedi protecting him from blaster-fire, he felt himself being drowned in cold water, he felt warmth and light, he felt uncertainty and fear, he felt anger and then peace, but the last thing he felt was what scared him most. He felt like he had been stabbed in the chest with a lightsaber. It was a burning, white-hot pain that made his head churn and sucked the breath from his lungs. He couldn’t scream, he couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t think, he couldn’t move! He collapsed into darkness and went still, feeling nothing more but the sweet comfort of sleep and the soft, welcoming darkness that came with it._

* * *

 

     It always felt good to be back on Coruscant, especially after being on ships or space stations for a few weeks. During the trip back to Coruscant, Kanan had commed his former master to arrange a meeting. He’d been talking with her a lot while he searched for a youngling that would make a good padawan for him, so far his search had been inconclusive.

     Kanan and his master currently stood watching a group of younglings that had just passed their initiate tests. They all looked too young to Kanan. He sighed in disappointment as he hadn’t expected it to be that hard to choose a youngling to train.

     “You know, Luke has a sister…” His master trailed off as Kanan was already shaking his head.

     “Master Secura has been watching Leia a lot recently, I believe that it’s only a matter of time before she takes Leia on her padawan.” Kanan replied dryly, “Besides, Leia is…well, she has one of those personalities…I think a female master would fare better with her than a male master, and Leia’s also more interested in becoming a Consular and I’m a Guardian not a Consular, so….”

     “So what? You’ve been talking about getting a padawan for years now only to turn down every initiate that passes the youngling tests! It’s about time that you decided whether you’re going to train one or not. When you told the council that you wouldn’t accept a seat until you had a padawan, they expected you to be joining them with a year or two. It’s not fair to keep them waiting you know.” Depa scolded her former padawan. He had been knighted at age nineteen, a fairly young age to be knighted, and was given the offer of becoming a master on the Jedi Council when he was twenty-three. Now, five years later, he was still claiming to be looking for a padawan before he joined them. It was starting to cause Depa to wonder if there was another reason for him declining the seat other than the search for a padawan.

     Kanan sighed in annoyance, sometimes Depa felt more like a mother than a master to him. He couldn’t deny what she’d said, and in all honesty, he had thought he would have had a padawan by now. The only problem he had was that every time he considered a youngling or initiate, he didn’t feel anything in the force indicating that there was meant to be a bond between them. Before he had become Depa’s padawan, he had seen her in the medical wing of the Jedi Temple and he had felt a connection to her like he should have known her. It was his best guess that he thought he recognized her then because in the future he would become her padawan. Kanan was waiting to feel that with the initiate or youngling he chose as his padawan, and so far he hadn’t felt anything… “I know.” He replied as if he were a child in trouble. “It just doesn’t feel right to me to be made a Master on the Council when I’ve never trained a padawan. I mean, I know that there are several Jedi who have done just that in the past, but for me it just doesn’t seem right.”

     “I suppose that’s logical…it could be that the force wants you on the council eventually; however, for some reason you aren’t ready or it’s not the right time. The force has never been great on certain clarity, all we can do is interpret it the best we can and hope that we did the right thing.” She nodded in understanding. “Still, it would be nice to see you with a padawan soon. Most Knights are halfway through training their first padawan by the time they are your age.”

     “I think we all know that I’m a perfect example for not following the standards…” Kanan chuckled, then in a low voice he added, “You and I both know that the streets changed me, I’ve never been the same and I never will be.”

     “You shouldn’t talk about that!” Depa warned in a whisper. “We never caught Styles, and I doubt he’s given up on his revenge yet…”

     “I’d like to see him try to kill me now!” Kanan snarled. “I’m not the innocent, sweat little Jedi kid I was back then! I bet he’d get a kick out of seeing me now!” Kanan grinned goofily. “Not that it’d last long.”

     “Kanan!” Depa exclaimed.

     “What?! Just because I said it like that doesn’t mean I’d kill him!” Kanan defended, finding this situation unexplainably funny. How many Jedi Knights could still feel intimidated by their Masters? “It wouldn’t last long because I would have him imprisoned…or let Grey have at him. Grey not a Jedi after all…”

     “No, but you still shouldn’t be talking like that.” Depa shook her head. “I don’t see what’s so hilarious about this either. Why are you laughing?”

     “Oh, I don’t know. For some reason, I can’t think of any other knights still being intimidated by their masters when they do something stupid.” Kanan smirked.

     “I suppose that’s a reasonable explanation.” Depa chuckled. They turned their attention back to the younglings they were watching. “Any of them catching your eye?”

     “Not really, no. They all feel too young. I need a padawan who’s old enough to go out on missions with me because that’s what I’m doing half the time, and it would be awful hard to train a padawan in my off-time.” Kanan replied, hastily walking away from the viewport they had been watching the younglings through. He’d had enough watching for today, he needed to get some rest.

     Depa watched him go and let out an exasperated sigh. He could be a handful sometimes, but at least his heart was in the right place. Now if only his heart could find a padawan…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm still debating on whether or not I should bring in Star, Luca, Mersaides, and Max from my fanfiction Fugitive Padawan. It would certainly help to have a few more padawans and younglings in the story, but adding more in would mean they would have to be OCs. If you have any suggestions, these are the Master/Padawan pairings I have so far.  
> *If you want to read the full version of Fugitive Padawan, you can find it on FanFiction.net. I haven't uploaded the whole thing here yet.*
> 
> Male Masters  
> Grand Jedi Master Yoda (unknown species) - no padawan, watches Luke and Leia though  
> Master Ki-Adi-Mundi (Cerean) - no padawan  
> Master Plo Koon (Kel Dor) - no padawan  
> Master Obi-Wan Kenobi (human) - Padawan Luke Skywalker (human)  
> Master Rahm Kota (human) - Padawan Galen Marek (Starkiller) (human)  
> Jedi Knight Kanan Jarrus (human) - Padawan Ezra Bridger (human)  
> Jedi Knight Sammo Quid (Twi'lek) - no padawan  
> Jedi Knight Petro (human) - no padawan  
> Jedi Knight Byph (Ithorian) - no padawan  
> Jedi Knight Gungi (wookie) - no padawan  
> Jedi Knight Zatt (Nautolan) - no padawan
> 
> Female Masters  
> Chief Librarian/Master Jocastu Nu (human) - no padawan  
> Master Shaak Ti (Togruta) - Padawan Marris Brood (Zabrak)  
> Master Coleman Kcaj (Ongree)- no padawan  
> Master Luminara Unduli (Mirialan) - Padawan Bariss Offee (Mirialan)  
> Master Depa Billaba (Chalactan-human) - no padawan  
> Master Aayla Secura (Twi'lek) - Padawan Leia Skywalker (human)  
> Master Stass Allie (Tholothian) - no padawan  
> Jedi Knight Tai Uzuma (human) - no padawan  
> Jedi Knight Katooni (human) - no padawan  
> Jedi Knight Ganodi (Rodian) - no padawan
> 
> And I can't decide on a Master for Mara Jade. Any suggestions? And should I bring Star, Luca, Mersaides, and Max into it? I might also add some OCs if you guys come up with some good ones, so suggest away!


	4. A Game of Cat and Rat

     Ezra woke feeling stiff and cold. He scrambled to his feet and saw that his room was a mess. Books, disk files, training equipment—everything looked as if it had been thrown around the room. He felt slightly lightheaded and dizzy, but shook the feeling off as he was more curious as to what had happened to his room. It didn’t look like this before he had his vision…

     “Are you done surveying your work yet?” The all-too-familiar voice of Maul asked from behind.

     Ezra spun around to face his master in surprise. Odd, he was jumpier than he usually was when he was trying to hide something. “I had a vision!” Ezra blurted out, wanting to slap himself for letting Maul know that he had a vision. He should have kept it to himself, but he was still getting used to the shock of it himself.

     “A vision?” Maul pressed, his voice laced with curiosity though still possessing its usual cold malice.

     _Oh, boy. What have I got myself into now?!_ Ezra inwardly panicked. He had to tell Maul now, but he couldn’t let Maul know about the part of his vision where his parents were free… “Uh, well, I was in space. No helmet or anything, and the stars made a pathway for me which I followed till I came to a fork in the path. There were three paths. One with white stars that looked old and unused, one with gray stars that looked a bit sturdier but still not exactly safe, and one with dark stars that looked powerful and strong. A Loth-rat scampered down the first path, a Loth-cat ran down the second, and a Loth-wolf down the third. The third held the Loth-wolf’s weight so I followed it down that dark path and…” Ezra broke off as he felt icy tendrils tickling his skin. He looked down, but there was nothing. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up and he realized something that he hadn’t really thought about during his vision, the dark path scared him! “…and as I was traveling I felt pain, anger, and icy cold water but I also felt power, I just needed to go a little bit farther to get it. It was always just out of my reach.” Ezra was talking much faster now, finding it easier to lie the faster he made the stuff up. “When I finally jumped for it and grabbed it, I was immersed in darkness. I saw little pieces of what I think might be the future but I couldn’t make out much. I think I heard the Jedi talking about, trying to decide how they were going to deal with me. Then I woke up and saw all this…” Ezra gestured at his room, knowing that it was going to take forever for him to clean.

     “I see.” Maul nodded, sounding rather satisfied…and ambitious? “Clean your room, then meet me in the control center.”

     “Yes, master.” Ezra rolled his eyes as Maul left. Despite the fact he hated his master, he was still curious about his master’s behavior. It was natural to hear ambition, anger, hatred, that sort of stuff, but satisfaction? Interest in his apprentice? Maul never cared about what went on in Ezra’s head, he never asked, just never! Could it be that he thought Ezra was improving? Was that it? Did he think that Ezra was finally moving forward in his training? Whatever the reason, Ezra knew that something was coming out of this and he knew that it felt like a storm cloud on the horizon. You could see it coming, but you didn’t have a clue of when it would strike.

     Ezra met Maul in the control center about thirty minutes later. He was surprised to see other people there, including a few Mandalorians and some strange looking species that he wasn’t familiar with. Which was odd considering that his study of the galaxy was thorough enough to include species of all kinds. This species was not in anything he’d ever read or studied… It was tall, and big. Strong muscles, durable armor, black eyes, pointed ears, covered in either scars or a signature trait of the species, not to mention ridiculously ugly and smelling worse that the waste on Raxus Prime—basically the trash-dumb of the galaxy.

     “Ezra, these are our allies. A hundred of Mandalore’s finest warriors and the full army of the Yuuzhan Vong. I’m sure you’ve realized by now that the Yuuzhan Vong aren’t from around here, they are from outside our galaxy and will gladly help get rid of the Jedi and the Republic. I think you’ll find them rather formidable foes for the Jedi. Their armor can withstand lightsabers and blaster fire, they are stronger than a Lasat, and well, they’re nearly impossible to kill.” Maul sounded truly impressed if not awed by these creatures, these aliens. Ezra, on the other hand, didn’t trust them. He couldn’t feel their presence in the force and they felt…deceptive? Ezra felt like they couldn’t be trusted, like they had some sort of underlying motive for agreeing to help Maul.

     “So what are they getting out of being our allies?” Ezra asked, glaring at the one he figured to be the leader as he searched for any sign of an alternative motive.

     “We merely want to see the Jedi gone, and maybe have a few planets for our kind. Our home was destroyed. By helping you and your master, we will get a couple new planets to call home. That’s all we want.” The leader answered, his voice sounded almost like a hiss.

     “Now that you’ve been introduced, you can head to the Hosk Station and pick up a shipment for me. There are details on the datapad in your new ship.” Maul explained curtly.

     Ezra felt oddly disappointed. His master only wanted him here to see why they were going to “win”. And now that he had, it was back to his usual routine. “Yes, master.” Ezra nodded, though he was dying to ask about the role of the Mandalorians. If he remembered correctly, Mandalorians were very involved when it came to family. So why only a hundred Mandalorians? Only a hundred sounded more like a rogue band rather than part of the Mandalorian forces. Ezra shook his head in a failing attempt to get the pool of questions out of his mind. Chances were that the answer would become obvious with time, right now he had a mission to focus on.

     When Ezra reached the hangar, he realized that when Maul had said ‘new ship’ he had really meant to say ‘fresh-off-the-assembly-line’. The ship Ezra was looking at was a beautiful, modified X-wing painted built with dark colored metals to help it blend into space. It wasn’t weighted down with targeting computers or an autopilot, he could use the force to do those things, and it had a small cargo hold big enough for a few small shipments. All-in-all, it was the perfect ship for Ezra. Sleek, nearly invisible, a little space—the Jedi would have a fun time catching him now!

     Inside the ship, Ezra found a few rations of food and water, two blasters with enough power cells to last a couple hours of blaster fire, and the data-pad. He picked up the data-pad and made his way to the only seat on board, the pilot’s seat, his seat. The target was a shipment of power crystals heading to the Jedi temple. The shipment was well protected by several escorts in the air which meant he would have to grab it when it made its next stop on the Hosk Station, after that, it wouldn’t land again until it reached Coruscant in which case the shipment would be lost. What could Maul want that many power crystals for though? This was a rather large shipment, enough for a couple hundred Jedi. The question of their purpose was starting to nag at Ezra more and more. Kyber crystals, power crystals...if he had done his math correctly then Maul should have enough for an army of Sith Apprentices about half the size of the Jedi order. That wouldn’t make any sense though considering the Sith rule-of-two.

     Ezra managed to distract himself from the question on his way to the Hosk Station. While in hyperspace, he had been studying the maps his master had given him to determine the best way of getting the crystals without being captured. It looked like it was going to be a rather simple grab and go sort of operation, until his master commed him.

     “I’m almost to the Hosk Station, so you better make this fast.” Ezra warned, not wanting to deal with the Sith Lord at the moment. He needed to be getting ready to land.

     From the hologram, Maul eyed Ezra as if he was daring him to speak like that again. Ezra rolled his eyes and sighed, waiting for his master to explain why he had commed him at such a time. “I have just received word from one of my spies that Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, his Padawan Luke Skywalker, Knight Kanan Jarrus, and Asohka Tano will be at the space station to keep an eye on the power crystal shipment. Apparently, they are expecting you.”

     “Well, that’s just great!” Ezra huffed in annoyance. “It will certainly complicate things, but I believe I can still get the shipment without too much trouble. If I can distract the Jedi, then I can grab the shipment and be out before they realize I was ever there. I’ll have to use that force-invisibility trick you taught me a few years back, and here I was thinking I’d never get a reason to use it!” Ezra joked dryly. Maul didn’t seem to get it.

     “At most I expect a brief delay, I still expect you back in a short period of time.” Maul added, then his hologram flickered off leaving Ezra in silence once more.

     “Well, here goes nothing.” Ezra sighed and focused on his surroundings, picturing himself blending into them. It was a bit of a dizzying feeling, letting his force signature blend with the living things around him so that it appeared that he was not of the force and was just a normal everyday person. Of course, the Jedi might get suspicious if they tried to sense him but couldn’t…then again, it had been recorded that some people could make their presence in the force disappear without even knowing it. If the Jedi remembered that much, then he might get by without too much trouble.

     When he came out of hyperspace, Ezra wasn’t surprised to see a Republic cruiser off in the distance. It was keeping far enough away not to interfere with the Hosk Station’s daily traffic and stabilizer generators, but Ezra’s main concern was making sure it stayed far enough away not to interfere with his plans. Landing was simple enough as his master had made previous arrangements for him to dock in one of the hangars closest to where the shipment was being held.

     Upon landing, Ezra found himself almost immediately running into the last group of people he wanted to run into, the Jedi. Apparently, a well-known thief had gone after the shipment, when he realized there were Jedi involved he fled to his ship which happened to be in the same hangar that Ezra was docking in.

     Ezra mentally cursed the thief, he wasn’t expecting to deal with Jedi as soon as he got off his ship, but now it seemed that he had no choice. They were already heading his way, probably to check his security codes. There was nothing Ezra could do about the situation except play the role of the ignorant, innocent bystander who happened to arrive at the wrong time. “What’s going on?” He asked, sounding genuinely confused by all the commotion. “I thought this station was secure!”

     “There was a little, incident.” Obi-Wan Kenobi explained. “There’s a valuable shipment passing through here, under normal circumstances this space station would be quite safe, but when something like this is being transported through it is natural to see bounty hunters and thieves have a go at it.”

     Ezra nodded in understanding, but was fuming inside. This was going to make things very complicated! “You don’t think it will hinder any business, do you? I’m on a bit of a tight schedule.”

     “It shouldn’t take up too much of your time.” Kanan spoke up this time, holding his hand out for Ezra’s clearance code card. “What kind of business are you doing anyway? Last I checked, kids didn’t do much business unless they were on the wrong side of the law.”

     The Jedi sounded so calm and relaxed, which unnerved Ezra because he knew Jedi were at staying calm before they would strike. Jarrus was smart, unfortunately, no as smart as Ezra. “I’m working on a trade for my father’s employer.” Ezra lied. “If all goes well, then I have a promising future of inheriting my father’s position when he retires, and from there I can work my way up the ladder till I’m the boss sending out my employees’ sons to see who I want in my business and who I don’t.” Ezra handed Kanan the security chip and silently prayed that nothing went wrong, not that he expected it to. Maul was always careful with this sort of thing, but the unplanned thief had been unexpected delay so he might as well expect another.

     “Woah, nice blaster!” A light-haired kid exclaimed, Ezra turned his attention to the boy next to Obi-Wan. He guessed that this was Luke, Obi-Wan’s padawan.

     “Thanks, my dad got it for me for my thirteenth birthday.” And he kept continuing with the lies… “I’m accurate and precise too, I guess if I felt like taking a risk I could be a professional bounty hunter, but that’s an uncertain career that could leave me dead.” Ezra shrugged carelessly. “I’ll probably just stick with this job.”

     “Okay, looks like your clearance code checks out.” Kanan said, looking over the data that the code gave explaining who he was and what he did. “Yogan farming, huh? Good year I hope.”

     “Yeah, I guess. We could have gotten a bit more water, but eh, nature’s nature. You can’t really control that.” Ezra sighed, thinking more of how he couldn’t control the situation he was in and not much of how difficult it could be to force nature to move.

     “You farm yogans?” Luke pressed. “Are you from the Outer-Rim?”

     “Yeah, small planet called Lothal. You?” Ezra didn’t know why he told Luke his home-planet, then again, it wasn’t like they would ever find out that he was the Sith apprentice.

     “Tatooine.” Luke replied. “Good luck with negotiating over your yogans!”

     “Yeah, hope you have good luck protecting whatever it your protecting.” Ezra waved as he took off. Luke seemed nice, it was too bad Ezra was going to have to steal the shipment he was to protect, that probably wouldn’t look to good on his Jedi resume.

     Ezra disappeared into a control center, quickly knocking its crew unconscious, and hacked into the station’s systems. There was a shuttle leaving for the cruiser in a few minutes. If he could plant some explosives on it, then that might distract the Jedi long enough for him to grab the shipment. He would also plant some explosives on the opposite side of the station, as well as the top floor. If the Jedi split up like he expected them to, then he would only have to deal with one Jedi to get the shipment and that was something he could manage.

     “Hey! What do you think you’re doing?!” A voice exclaimed rather threateningly from the door. Ezra turned to see a dark-skinned boy about his age holding a blaster pointed right at him.

     “I’m stealing the Jedi’s shipment of power crystals to trade to a guy who has my parents held hostage.” Ezra didn’t bother lying, he didn’t have time for any more distractions. He would just have to hope the guy believed him and left him alone. If not, well, he could always force throw him into the wall…

     “Why don’t you just bust your parents free? You know where they are, don’t you?” The kid pressed, his blaster hadn’t lowered any yet.

     “I know where they are, but busting them out is impossible. It would take me too long to disable the security systems and by then he’d be there stopping me and then he’d probably kill them.” Ezra spat back, why did he have to go through so many complications on this mission!

     “You just need the right tech.” The kid replied, now the blaster was being lowered. “I can help you if you promise not to steal that shipment.”

     Ezra was still for a second. He needed those crystals, but if this kid could save him time on killing the security then the next time Maul left for only a few hours he could bust his parents free and they could be gone before Maul had any idea of what had happened. Then again, he could always lie to the kid and tell him that he wouldn’t steal the crystals and then steal them anyway… It wasn’t like the kid would know it was him who stole the crystals. The only question was if he had enough time to do both… Only one way to find out!

     “Okay.” Ezra lied. “But why do you care if I steal the shipment.” Ezra turned the system he was on, off, and followed the kid out of that control station.

     “Because whoever has your parents probably doesn’t want them for anything good.” The kid replied. “Plus, my girlfriend is an intern working in the security systems…she’d catch you, easily.”

     “I’m sure she would.” Ezra said sarcastically, not believing that she could.

     “Oh, you underestimate her abilities, my friend! Her parents are hackers, she’s practically a born technological genius!” The guy boasted proudly. Meanwhile Ezra had tensed up, ‘friend’?

     “Friend?” Ezra questioned. “I don’t even know your name!”

     “I’m Zare, Zare Leonis. And you?” Zare seemed strange to Ezra. One second threatening him, the next helping him, and after that calling him his friend?

     “Dev Morgan.” Ezra answered, still looking at Zare a little funny. “Do you always jump around this fast? Or is this some special occasion?”

     “What do you mean?” Zare asked, sounding confused by the question.

     “I mean, not everyone would hold a blaster to somebody, then offer them help, and then call them their friend. I trust that you have a good reason… Actually, I don’t think trust is a good word…perhaps hope would fit better. I hope you have a good reason.” Ezra explained, his voice dripping with sass. It was probably clear to every person on the darn station that he didn’t get to socialize often…maybe that’s why he was so snappy all the time…

     Zare nodded solemnly for a second, and for a moment Ezra didn’t think he was going to respond. “I figured helping you was better than having you stealing, and I know what it’s like to feel like you’ve lost someone. I wouldn’t want you to have to feel that.”

     “You lost someone very close to you, huh?” Ezra could feel the sadness rolling off of Zare, whoever he’d lost was someone Zare cared about deeply…but it didn’t feel like whoever he/she were dead, just gone…

     “Yeah, my sister. She left to join the Jedi when she was five, we don’t get to see her much anymore and we were rather close back then. Even though we were so little, she still watched out for me.” Zare explained, Ezra nodded in understanding. That confirmed his thoughts…well, not really thoughts but feelings.

     “I’m sorry about your sister.” Ezra wasn’t the best comforter, but he didn’t really like what he’d been taught about the Jedi… No attachments?...No emotion?...plus half of the Jedi in the galaxy were hypocritical and they hid their mistakes! “I hope you get to see her again”

     Zare stopped walking and looked at him oddly. “You don’t like the Jedi?”

     Ezra merely shrugged his shoulders. “Never been a big fan.” He answered. “It takes more than a few sword and mind tricks to wow me…plus I have my own personal reasons for not liking them.”

      “I can respect that, though I don’t understand it.” Zare continued without any further questioning, thankfully. “My parents aren’t too keen on the Republic because it takes forever for stuff to go through the Senate. Personally, I kind of agree with them, but the Jedi… As far as I know, they haven’t procrastinated with stuff like the future of a planet. Whereas the Republic didn’t want to use a formula my parents made that would increase the size of crops, and the planet they intended to use it on could have used it too.”

     “Yeah, the Republic has its flaws…” Ezra agreed.

     “Are we almost there? I may not be stealing crystals anymore, but I’m still on a tight schedule!” Ezra added in as a warning. He was about ready to turn back and try to get the crystals anyway.

     “Gee, you’re awful impatient! Here we are.” Zare gestured to a door on their left.

     Ezra entered without saying another word. The sooner he could get this over with, the better. Inside, there was who Ezra presumed to be Zare’s mother working in the kitchen and his father bent over some potted plants as if he could actually see them grow. Zare led Ezra past them to the back, to a room that must have been his own.

     “I’ve got some stuff that my girlfriend gave me, it should be able to hack into any system and open anything locked. She made it for me so it’s about as user-friendly as it can come, I’m not the best with tech.” Zare admitted, handing Ezra a small satchel with the hacking gear. “Just do me a favor and don’t tell anyone that you got that from me or my girlfriend.”

     “Gotcha.” Ezra smiled slightly. “And thanks…this means a lot.” The smile, despite its miniscule size, felt wrong. Ezra quickly turned around and made for the door, he needed to get moving. “Maybe we’ll see each other again one day.” Ezra added before he left, though he didn’t really believe it. If he got through today and freed his parents, then he would go into hiding with them and they would likely never be heard of again.

     “No problem.” Zare said as Ezra left, for some reason it sounded like Zare didn’t want to see him go.

     _Guess there aren’t too many kids his-our on a space station this small…_ Ezra would have liked to keep Zare company, especially since the Jedi practically took Zare’s sister from him, but he had work to do with even less time to do it than when he started this mission.

     He bolted for the shuttle on the other side of the station. He had to get some sort of charge set on it before it left if his plan was going to work. Ezra didn’t care if the Jedi sensed him or not anymore. He chose to focus on using the force to help him run faster rather than use it to hide his force signature, he could feel the Jedi’s surprise when they sensed another force wielder. A smug grin spread across Ezra’s lips as he ran, he’d caught the Jedi off-guard! _Perfect!_

Ezra charged into the hangar and threw one of the explosives he had into the door of the shuttle as it began to close. As the shuttle began to take off, Kanan and Asohka appeared. “Catch it if you can!” Ezra laughed, pointing at the shuttle before taking off again. Asohka went after the shuttle, but Kanan had chosen to follow him. _Darn Jedi! Why couldn’t he have paused for two seconds to ask Asohka if she needed help?! Two seconds would have helped a bunch!_

When he reached the other side of the station, Ezra threw two explosives in opposite directions. He was glad that they weren’t lethal because the last thing he wanted to do right now was kill anybody, that would really get the Jedi on his tail! A quick glance behind him showed that Kanan had stopped to deal with the explosives giving Ezra enough room to disappear, although Kanan probably had a good idea of where Ezra was headed.

     The hangar with the ship to transport the power crystals was nearly empty, which made Ezra appreciate bomb safety procedures. There was something off though, like there was something in the hangar but it wasn’t where he could see it. Keeping his senses alert, Ezra rushed to the ship, ripped open the crate, and pulled out the bag that held the power crystals…and it was a lot of power crystals! With the bag in tow, he wheeled around to dash for the door before Kanan could arrive and block him off, but there was no need to wait for Kanan. Not when Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker were guarding the exit.

     “I’m afraid we cannot let you leave with those.” Obi-Wan stated.

     “Dev?” Luke questioned. “You’re the Sith apprentice?”

     “Duh!” Ezra said, using the force to lift Luke and put him in the ship. Then he guided the force into tampering with the locking mechanism, leaving Luke trapped inside the ship…without his lightsaber. “Three down, one to go. Why don’t we call it a day and you let me go?”

     “Oh, I would be more than happy to!” Obi-Wan agreed. “Only if you surrender though.”

     Their lightsabers hissed with lethal hums and clashed as they danced around each other in a potentially deadly dual. Kenobi seemed to focus mostly on form three, which came as no surprise seeing as it best represented what the Jedi supposedly claimed to be. Ezra chose to use form four. Ataru combined his best attributes into one skill with a powerful weapon. Speed and agility, spinning and jumping, and maneuvering his blade to deliver clever strikes that disoriented his attacker. First he’d strike low, then high, then off to the side, and then he’d stab. There was no order to his strikes, or so it would appear, which made it hard for Kenobi to predict Ezra’s attacks.

     Ezra didn’t have time to dual till one of them won, and he knew the only way to get Kenobi off of him was if someone else was in danger. While pressing his saber against Obi-Wan’s, he ripped out the last explosive and threw it at the ship Luke was trapped in…apparently he still couldn’t figure out how to fix Ezra’s tampering with the lock. Obi-Wan’s focus immediately went to the explosive, just as Ezra had predicted. With his focus on keeping his padawan alive, Ezra made his escape with the power crystals.

     It was unnerving to Ezra for him to get to the hangar with his ship and not be confronted by Asohka or Kanan… He could understand Asohka still being busy, but Kanan should have been here by now. Frowning, Ezra made his way to his ship. He didn’t like not knowing what was keeping Kanan, but it was better than being held back by another short dual.

     Ezra jumped at the crackling of his comm system. Who would be trying to talk to him right now? His master knew he was busy... “Going somewhere, Dev?” The voice was light and playful, which just frustrated Ezra even more. This was serious! This wasn’t a game!

     “Kanan.” Ezra hissed. If Kanan was on the comm system, then that meant he was in a ship. That could complicate things.

     “Or should I call you something else? Something tells me that you’re not Dev.” Kanan continued, Ezra snorted in a disapproval.

     “For the most part I’m not. Why don’t you go to Lothal and find out for sure?” Ezra prodded as he tried to get a visual on where Kanan was.

     “Mm, okay, but after you give those crystals back.” Kanan teased, “I’ll take them by forfeit or if you just want to drop them off back at the station, I’ll take that too.”

     “In your dreams!” Ezra snapped back. “I’m not looking to hand these over any time soon. Besides, I don’t even see you which means that you’re not a threat to me because you’re nowhere in range.”

     “You sure about that?” Kanan asked, just as a Correlian freighter pulled in front of him. Ezra could sense the Jedi and at least one other in the ship. _Great!_

     “I can still outmaneuver you.” Ezra pointed out.

     “Oh, we’ll see about that! I have the best pilot in the galaxy flying this baby. You’re toast.” Kanan challenged.

     Ezra noted that the ship was doing a good job at keeping him in their sights. He couldn’t seem to find a way to get out of their sights long enough for him to make the jump to hyperspace. The coordinates were already in the hyperdrive, he just needed to get them off his tail!

     “You’re testing me, Jarrus.” Ezra hissed. Kanan was playing with him like a cat would play with it’s prey.

     “Oo, you used my last name. Someone’s angry.” Kanan chuckled.

     “You asked for this.” Ezra warned, accelerating as if he were about to make the jump to hyperspace. The ship following him did the same, as predicted. Ezra then pulled back on the controls and quickly veered the ship so that he was facing the ship following him. “Your pilot’s better than I thought. Give him my compliment.” Ezra said. The pilot had brought the Ghost to a stop barely a few feet from Ezra’s fighter, he had interpreted Ezra’s move. _Impressive._

     “Her.” The pilot corrected.

     “My apologies.” Ezra replied politely. “I hate to put a dent in your ship, but I have places to be.” Ezra apologized. He fired at the freighter, flew over it, and made the jump—his ship jerked as he made the jump. He’d been hit! “Damn it, Kanan!” Ezra grit his teeth as he forced the ship to continue the jump into hyperspace. He wouldn’t be able to make it back to Maul’s headquarters, he’d have to make a stop for repairs. If he was right, then the hyperdrive would at least let him get a decent way away from the Hosk Station before he would have to land and make repairs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed this chapter! I loved writing the end to it. Kanan and Ezra!

**Author's Note:**

> Another Star Wars fanfic, I know! I'm obsessed! This one is personally one of my favorites, and I hope to have some of my other ones from FanFiction.net up soon too. Some of my other fanfictions are, Caleb the Runaway (prequel to Kanan the Cowboy), Ezra the Phantom (sequel to Kanan the Cowboy), Star Wars High, Runaway Rescue (some of Kanan's backstory to Star Wars High), and I usually do a collaboration of one-shots titled One-Shot Is All It Takes (ironic right!).
> 
> I'm still getting the hang of the site, but so far I'm liking it better than FanFiction. I think I've got the gist of it down, but it wouldn't surprise if something popped up that completely threw me off my game.
> 
> Anyway, Question: Which is your favorite pairing in Star Wars Rebels? Sibling-wise or Couple-wise or whatever.  
> Mine, Kanan x Hera (Kanera Bread shall be a thing!)  
> Ezra x Sabine (sibling stuff not romance, they strike me more as brother/sister than potential dates for the other)  
> Ezra x Kanan (father/son or brother/brother...kind of like Anakin and Obi-Wan (Coincidence? I think not!)  
> Ezra x Hera or Sabine x Hera (son/mother or daughter/mother)  
> So basically just the whole space family stuff. They're a cute, dysfunctional family.


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